Lilac Vengeance
by Dragonmaster870
Summary: This is the story of Nilean Lilac, one of many Huntsman and Huntresses in training. He wishes to get revenge on the beings that stripped him of everything when he was a boy, the Creatures of Grimm. But first, he has to make it through the esteemed and incredibly strict Beacon Academy.
1. Prologue: Initiating Event

**A/N: Yo! Dragonmaster is here, taking a break from my other fics due to writer's block, and starting up something new—a RWBY fanfic. I discovered this freaking ****_amazing _****show a week or two before this was chapter was posted (6/28-29) and I simply can't stop thinking about it. So, to alleviate my mental pain, I'm going to throw some of my ideas a.k.a. characters into this universe (original characters, in case you're wondering). One of the characters present is the in-universe me: an author avatar, if you want to put it like that, just because I want to place a bit of myself into the story.**

**I'm trying to follow most of the storyline with this fic; as the most I'm doing to tear this from the original storyline is add OCs. That means (the 'trying to follow most of the storyline' part) that once this fic hits the point equivalent to the end of season 1, I'm going to be rather slow posting, because I will be right on line with everyone else waiting for season 2.**

**...Disclaimers. I do not own RWBY, the show nor the team, as they are all copyrighted by Rooster Teeth Productions LLC. The only thing I really own is my OCs, their Semblances and their weapons. And maybe their sanity.**

**So without further ado, may the story begin!**

**Prologue: Initiating Event**

* * *

The day I turned ten was the day I found my reason to be a huntsman. That day, November 9th, was both the best and worst day of my life. On that day...I...I lost everything. But at the same time, it laid out the path for everything I will ever gain.

To be honest, I don't even remember most of that day, only my last waking moments. 30 minutes, maybe. A small blip in time, yet it can be so long in the right, or wrong, circumstances. The most memorable moment of my life to date.

I remember waking up to the voice of my younger sister, Illia, with her twin brother, Neal, sitting on top of me and speaking in their weird toddler language, blending English and gibberish to form the most nonsensical sound combinations ever to exist. (Unless you count Grimm communication). After that, I remember my mom, Cecilia, telling me to get dressed because we were going to be traveling to one of the neighboring kingdoms to show me my birthday present. I don't remember which one she said.

After that is a blank. A part of a memory that is elusive as hell. It's like quicksilver; hold it open-handed, it remains, but the moment I try to grasp it, it darts away.

Some time afterwards I find me and my family in a carriage making it's way through a path through the forest. My mom is chatting with the driver of the carriage, who I remember is my dad. I'm not sure if this is a common feature of carriages, but there's a curtain separating my dad from the rest of us. He was always shrouded from view, either hiding behind that steel door to his laboratory in the basement, or holed up in his office, face hidden from view by massive stacks of files, behind the pages of a book, behind a computer screen, or burying his nose in his sketch pad. To this day I think I've only seen his face once.

My mother was wrapping Illia and Neal in her motherly love up in the front of the carriage, I was resting in more of the middle portion of it, legs resting on the seat beside me, and towards the back was my big sister, Sarah, who came home from the esteemed Beacon Academy just to celebrate my "reaching double digits". She had bought me a laptop to put my ideas on, because I had already used up every available space in my notebooks aplenty. Sarah was the only one who understood my burning passion for writing, because she wanted to be one as well. And the one person who understood disappeared in the blink of an eye. One moment she reading a book; the next the book fell to the floor along with part of her jacket, and I heard her scream, which got softer and softer as we kept on moving. I didn't quite comprehend what happened simply because it happened so fast, but what happened next disoriented me even more. Something hit the carriage and sent it flying, horses and all. I left my seat for a moment, then came crashing down hard on the corner of the other bench.

I hear a roar and then an enormous amount crunching and cracking from the front of the carriage.

"Nilean, stay in here with Illia and Neal. I'm going to go and take care of these things," My mom whispered hurriedly to us. "When I say run, you guys go as fast as you can back the way we came." Before we could say anything else, she pressed a button on her wristlet and it expanded into a crossbow, then she went outside. I left Illia and Neal on the seat and peeked outside, where my mom was battling two creatures of Grimm: an enormous Ursa Major and a King Taijitu. The Ursa charged at her, and she slid under it and fired at its underbelly in response. It roared and crashed into the Taijitu, and it attacked in the Ursa's stead while it recovered. The black half lunged at her, and she flipped over it and shot into its eye. She landed and back-flipped away, then pressed a button on her crossbow and the arrow lodged in its eye exploded, taking the head with it.

Right then, the Ursa and the white half of the Taijitu charge at her. She shot two arrows at the ground in front of her, crouched low to the ground, pressed the button on her crossbow, leapt up and over the Ursa, and fired on her way down. The arrow pierced through one of the bone spikes on the Ursa's back and got stuck in the Taijitu's left fang. A cloud of green smoke appeared from the two arrows on the ground, which disoriented the Grimm creatures, then the other arrow exploded, blowing off the Taijitu's lower jaw along with a chunk of the Ursa's back.

"Now! Run!" She yelled, and I scooped up Illia and Neal and run in the direction she told us, and she followed close behind until a Nevermore comes crashing out from the forest canopy and fired its feathers in our direction.

I don't quite remember what happened next. Though I do remember the sensation of flying through the air and hitting something hard. Really hard. And I landed on my leg wrong, too. I lost both of my little siblings in the flight, and I'm quite sure my mother didn't make it, either. I hear a baby's squeal in the distance—Neal's—and a sickening wet crunching sound that eliminated it. I think I started crying then, and I think it attracted the creatures of Grimm, a mixture of Beowolves and Ursi. The Nevermore that showed up earlier fired the feather-spears again, and most of them missed me, save one, which hit me through the shoulder and pinned me to the tree I was knocked against. I squealed (a very manly squeal, if I do say so myself) and I think I passed out from the pain, because I woke up in a hospital bed.

Again, this was the worst and best day of my life. I lost everything I cared about. The things, no, people I cared about, all gone. Sure, I still have my books and my laptop, but I can just replace those. You get one family and that's it. There's no replacing them. But where there is destruction, there is creation. What I got from that was a reason, and, quite frankly, a freaking awesome lifestyle, to be honest.

My reason to become a Huntsman is to get vengeance on the creatures that stripped me of a good family life, but I fight simply because I want to, if that makes any sense. I'd rather be plowing through enemies on a battlefield than plowing the field.

My name is Nilean Lilac, and I am one of many Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training. (And I daresay the best one in years).

* * *

**A/N: Okay, clearly that was an introductory chapter, due to it being relatively short and being all character exposition-y. R&R, if you don't mind, because I can't improve as a writer without feedback.**

**See y'all next chapter!**


	2. 1: Welcome to Beacon

**A/N: Meh, on to the next chapter. Time to actually get this thing started.**

**Chapter 1: Welcome to Beacon**

* * *

"So I'm finally here..." I mutter as I take in the view of Beacon Academy through the airship's window. I'm not thinking this'll be entirely safe, though. The campus is set up almost entirely on a cliff, which is not the ideal location for a place housing thousands to be during an earthquake.

Shaking my head to clear away the negativity, I look around at some of my fellow first years. A few feet away from me, there's a generic blond-haired, blue-eyed teen staring out of the window who's pale complexion is slowly turning green. He is equipped with a white chestplate and shoulder armor, and under it, it looks like he's wearing a black hoodie with red-orange sleeves. He has blue pants with a white patch on his left knee, two different-shaded brown belts crisscrossing his waist, with one of them having a small pouch attached to it and the other with a sword put away in a white sheath. He has black shoes and fingertip-less brown gloves with metal plates on the back of them. Said boy proceeds to turn around and run somewhere further down the ship, puking a little along the way.

Some of his puke lands on the shoes of a not-so-generic blonde teen with lilac eyes. She's wearing a tan vest that covers most of a gold low-cut crop top, save her rather large breasts. On the top is a symbol that looks something like a burning something. (I'd be able to decipher more if I didn't have to worry about being caught staring, as it _is_ sort of placed on her left breast. That, and it's covered partially by the vest.) The vest has puffy sleeves with black cuffs with two golden buttons, and the vest stops just above her belly button. She has a brown belt on her waist with a buckle, pouch, and small banner-like thing, holding up nothing in particular. On said banner-thing is what's probably whatever symbol is on her shirt, which looks sort of like a burning heart upon further scrutiny, except this one is golden rather than the black that was on the shirt. She has rather short black shorts on (which I notice have no belt loops), and, probably just for sake of decreasing the amount of staring, there is a white, asymmetrical back skirt which appear to be held up only by that belt. She has an orange infinity scarf wrapped around her neck (providing no covering of the large amount of cleavage she's showing), and she has brown, knee-high platform boots probably made of leather, and orange socks of differing length, one coming up only just above where the boots stop, and the other coming up a few inches above the knee. She has a gray bandana wrapped over the top of the left boot (the leg with the longer sock), and black fingerless gloves that meet two wristlets at her wrists. She has a rather messy and loose-flowing head of hair coming down to her waist, with the color lightening at the ends and locks sticking out in places, most notably one on top of her head.

"Eww, Yang, you have puke on your shoe!" A black-haired, silver-eyed girl whines to her, backing away from her. She's an innocent-looking girl, appearing a little younger than the rest of us, maybe fifteen or sixteen. Her hair starts off black at the roots then it gradually turns red towards the ends. She has a black blouse and a skirt with red trimmings, and a red cloak as an added bonus, which is attached to her blouse with cross-shaped pins. On her waist is a grey belt which hold large gun cartridges and a magazine pouch, as well as a silver rose symbol. She has grey leggings and black boots that go up almost to her knees with red soles.

"Gross gross _gross_!" The blonde—Yang—exclaims. "Get it _off_!"

"Ew! Get away from me!" The other girl yells and retreats even faster, until she trips over her own two feet. She grabs Yang's sleeve and they both go down, and Yang bumps foreheads rather hard with the other girl. She rolls off of her and they both moan, both clutching their heads and writhing in agony.

"They seem awful friendly. Maybe they're related," I say to no one in particular and continue looking around.

Then I hear and all-too-familiar squeal, and I start crying inside. I turn around and see a beautiful girl with blue hair and amber eyes. She's dressed in a light blue blouse with only one sleeve, the right one, which is parted at the elbow. She has a chain wrapped around her left bicep and hangs down mid-thigh. On her hands are white gloves that come halfway up her forearm, and she has skin-tight light blue pants, with the right leg only coming down mid-thigh. She has boots of the same color with four-inch heels that reach up to her knees, and another chain wrapped around her waist, then around her leg just below the knee, and finally at the ankle of her right leg. To top it all off, she has a blue tail coming out from her pants and two cat ears sticking out from the top of her head, which have also adopted her hair color.

I'll be the first to tell you that this girl is absolutely gorgeous. An angel, practically. And I know that some might wonder why I started crying when I saw her, rather than leave my eyes clear to ogle at her. And that is because...

Looks are deceiving.

She looks like an angel, but she is the most devious prankster to exist on this planet.

Don't even get me started on her psychotic stalker tendencies.

"Oh Nile~an!" She runs up to me and glomps me, almost knocking both of us over. I lean against the window to keep myself from falling, effectively sandwiching myself between a rock and a hard place. A very provocative rock, and a hard place that is getting harder by the second.

I smile nervously at her and scratch the back of my head. "Hey, Avery. Funny seeing you here..."

She pouts and stares at me playfully. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing!" I say frantically, and look around for someone, or anyone that'll help get me out of this situation.

"Did you not expect me to make it? Gosh, that's so mean. You should be punished for making such assumptions..." She trails off and slides her finger from my collar bone and slowly down my torso.

_Omigod omigod omigod somebody needs to get her off of me! _I think to myself, and, as an answer to my prayers, my friend Lie Ren holds a ball of yarn in front of my face, and Avery's eyes widen and her ears perk up. He tosses the ball somewhere, and she seems torn on whether she should keep teasing me or go chase the ball.

"Can't...resist...cat...instincts...!" She runs after the ball, giving me some breathing room. I fall to the floor and sit crisscross, then let out a sigh of relief.

"You've saved my life once again, Ren. It's amazing how you can always pull through for me."

He sits down beside me. "Yeah, whatever. I won't be able to help you every second of the day at Beacon, though. You're either going to need to be able to find a way to keep her off of you, or get used to her teasing."

I groan. "But I'm not good at saying no...and her teasing won't just be teasing for long. In case you haven't noticed, she has the hots for me. She's like a dog in heat, except she's not going to wait for me to mount her."

He raises his eyebrows. "You're getting a bit descriptive there, Nile."

"Ugh, whatever." I look out of the window I'm leaning on and see we're about to land. "Beacon Academy..." I turn back to Ren. "On a scale of one to ten, with one being bleeding from the genitalia and ten being eliminating all of the Grimm and living happily ever after, how do you think these next few years at Beacon will turn out?"

Again, his eyebrows climb up his forehead. "Those are some pretty interesting reference points you have set up there..."

"Just answer the question."

"Well...I think it'll be around an eight. I think we'll have a pretty good time here, I guess." He gets up as everyone else makes their way out of the airship, some far faster than others. I get up, pick up my suitcase and join the river of teens to the exit.

* * *

I make my way towards the school's entrance with the river of other students, feeling more than a bit anxious. For whatever reason, I start thinking of all of the ways this day could go horribly wrong. I shake my head in an attempt to clear my head. I take in the scenery for sake of doing just that, and I space out taking it all in. That is, until I hear an explosion somewhere behind me. I turn back, along with a few other, and when the dust clears, I see the same red-and-black haired girl from earlier on the ground looking dazed, and a bitchy-looking white-haired girl dressed in a pale blue bolero jacket over a thigh-length dress of a similar color. I can see that the inside of the bolero is red, and on the back of it is the all-too-familiar Schnee crest, which is basically a snowflake. She has rectangular earrings and white, heeled wedge boots reaching mid-calf, and she sports an off-center ponytail which has a tiara resembling icicles at the base.

This girl is famous simply for being born. She is the heiress to the Schnee family's fortune and Dust company, Weiss Schnee.

As an added bonus, she lives up to my impression of her and blows up at the black-haired girl.

_I'm staying away from her, for sure._

I turn back around and continue my advance, and once again space out. Then I'm brought abruptly back when I bump into someone. I trip, fall, and tumble, all leading up to hitting my head on the corner of a bench. I hold my head and groan, and when the pain subsides, I look around for who I bumped into. After a few moments, I see a girl with yellowish-orange hair and gold eyes (I'm assuming, since her bangs cover her left eye.) picking herself up off of the ground. I begin walking up to her, thoughts of apologizing about to be put into action, then my train of thought comes to a screeching halt.

This girl comes up to my lowermost rib.

I look down at her slack-jawed, and she cranes her neck to look up at me.

The train starts back up, and I'm able to speak again. "Sorry for bumping into you."

She continues to stare up at me, her brow furrowing. Then she smiles warmly at me. "It's okay." She points up at my head. "You're bleeding, by the way."

I feel all of the blood leave my face. I reach up and press my hand to my forehead, and sure enough, when I pull my hand away, there's blood on my hand. "Crap..."

"What? It's nothing serious."

"I'm hemophilic."

She raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"I bleed easily. And when I do, it doesn't stop easily." Now, this really isn't a problem, because use of your Aura gives everyone a minor healing factor. A scratch like that is child's play.

But I'm special.

I don't use my Aura. Not because I don't want to, but because I just can't. I have no control over it, and it is a complete asshole and forces me to use other means to heal myself; by making myself bleed even more. Explanations come later.

"Don't you think that's sort of weird?" The girl asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask while pulling a tissue out of my suitcase and holding it to my head.

"You bleed easy, yet you go to a school for fighting, where you are guaranteed to bleed?"

I hold up my hand. "No, its not weird at all. Don't question it; accept it."

She sighs. "Whatever. Nice meeting you,...uh...what's your name?"

"Nilean."

"Nilean. My name's Emiko." She holds out her hand, and I shake it. "See you later, I guess."

"Yeah, see you." As she walks off, I can't help but think I'm going to see her again really soon.

* * *

By following the mass as I've been doing since I got off of the airship, I end up in the main hall with everyone else. Everyone is still chatting their asses off, until a bespectacled man in a green suit with white hair—Professor Ozpin begins speaking.

"I'll...keep this brief," he begins while pushing his glasses up on his nose. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

_He hasn't said anything inaccurate, I guess._

He takes a deep breath and then continues. "But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy. In need of purpose, of direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far." He pauses again, and there's a wave of murmuring making its way through the crowd.

_Well...dang, Mr. Ozpin. Way to welcome us to Beacon. _I think sarcastically to myself.

"It is up to you to take the first step." And with that, Ozpin crip-walks off of the stage with his cane. As he leaves, Glynda Goodwitch makes her way to the microphone.

"You will gather at the bar tonight. Tomorrow, you're initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

"Well...that was something. I wonder what we're supposed to do now?" A familiar voice says from beside me. Not surprisingly, it's Avery.

"I don't know. She didn't state any directive. I guess we just explore the grounds and relax until whenever they call us to the bar."

"Your guess is about as good as mine is."

* * *

**A/N: Another one down, plenty more to go. This one was more to just show some of Nile's relationships. Anyway, RTX is tomorrow, July 4th through July 6th, and the next season is supposed to premiere somewhere in that time period. I am so psyched for that; I will be one of many checking the website every hour of those few days for the first episode (simply because I can't go to RTX).**

**See ya, and Happy 4th of July!**


	3. 2: Initiation

**Chapter 2: Initiation**

* * *

I have a bad habit of waking up as soon as sunlight hits my face.

As they say, the early bird gets the worm, and that means I get to be ahead of the crowd...but _damn_. This bird really wanted that extra sleep.

But going back to sleep is simply not going to happen now. Accepting this depressing fact, I do everything a normal person does when they wake up, and add getting my combat gear from my locker, which is oh-so-cheefully numbered locker #666. I get dressed in my outfit, which is comprised of a dark purple jacket with an exaggerated collar and silver trimming. Under it is a basic silver button-down shirt. I have silver gloves on with purple trimming and silver pants held up by a purple belt with a buckle in the shape of a pointed cross, and silver shoes. I reach in my locker and pull out the final piece of my combat array; my weapons. A gunblade; which is a sword with a gun as the handle. It either collapses into a simple pistol or expands into a double-edged ring blade, giving my gloves the most important job of all of my equipment. At three equidistant points on the ring, there is a compartment where you can fire the bullets from. I slip the blade in its sheath and pull out two simple daggers, and slip those into their sheaths on each leg and leave the locker room.

I'm feeling psyched for this initiation right as the first people start to wake.

_And...all of my enthusiasm will be gone by the time the initiation starts._

I wait about the masses to be done with whatever they're doing, then we make our way to the main hall to await instruction. Ms. Goodwitch moves to the front to address everyone.

"Today is your initiation, as you already know. You all need to go to the other side of the school grounds to the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. You will see square plates arranged in a line in front of the cliff—stand on them and await further instruction. You are dismissed."

_Well...best to get moving._

I walk a good six feet before I'm tackled to the ground.

"Good morning~!" Avery says, straddling me.

"Good morning...Avery..." I groan and make a feeble effort to push her off me. "We need to go."

"I know, I know." She gets off of me and picks me up like I'm a ragdoll. I can't even be surprised at that anymore, as she's done it so much. We begin walking, this time leading the crowd, courtesy of her now dragging me. "So...I've been hearing rumors about teams, and I was wondering if..."

"We could be on a team?" I guess, and her eyes widen.

"How'd you know that was what I was going to say?" Her eyes get a bit cloudy as she is undoubtedly having totally extravagant fantasies. I wave my hand in her face to bring her back to reality.

"I read your mind." I decide to joke around with her.

Her mouth forms an 'O'. "No way...you have _two_ Semblances?"

I chuckle. "No, silly. I could see it on your face."

"Oh...was I that obvious?"

"Yep."

We walk in silence, emphasis on walk, as she let me go in her embarrassment, until we reach the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. Sure enough, there are square stone (or at least, stone-looking. Nothing's concrete here at Beacon. Everything is more than meets the eye.) platforms arranged in a line about ten feet from the edge of the cliff. Avery and I stand on two platforms in the middle of the row. Well, I stand and she sits down on it, but that's not important.

I take a look at everyone else falling in line. On my left side is Avery's bubbly self, and on the other side of me is...the Ice Queen, Weiss Schnee.

_Did it just get cold out here? I can feel icicles starting to form on my nose..._

I look forward, hoping that ignoring her will help me warm up, and I see Ms. Goodwitch and the headmaster standing in front of us, I guess getting ready to give us the 'further instruction' Ms. Goodwitch was talking about earlier.

Mr. Ozpin takes a deep breath before beginning. "For years you have trained to become warriors. Today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

As he finishes that sentence, Glynda begins. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates...today."

A good bout of murmuring begins all throughout our line, which is quickly subdued as Ozpin begins speaking again. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interests to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." He takes a sip of whatever he always has in that mug; probably coffee or something similar, and continues. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

_Wow. That is _such_ a reliable way to choose partners. _I think sarcastically. I sigh. _How are we supposed to choose a reliable teammate when fate chooses the teammate for us?_

"After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path...or you will die." He takes a moment to let that sink in. "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair will choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Some scraggly blond—the one that puked on the airship—raises his hand. "Good!" Ozpin says, with blatant disregard for the one person that had a question. "Now, take your positions."

Everyone gets ready in some kind of stance, and I follow suit. I simply draw my gunblade, while Avery remains seated and extends her weapon; the chain she has wrapped around her arm. She drapes it across her shoulder and smiles at me, which I return the nervous variant of the gesture. Then, without warning, she's launched from the pad, and mere seconds after her, I am, too.

_Holy mother of god!_

I turn my gunblade into the ringblade, which is about as big as a monster truck tire, and I settle myself in it. I push a button which makes one of the three guns on it fire, slowing my descent steadily until I reach a tree. I slip out of the ring and drive the ring into the tree, letting it slow my descent until I stop a good twenty feet off of the ground. I switch it back to a gunblade and fall to the forest floor, then take off running in the direction that I hope is north.

_...Well...um...time to let the chips fall where they may. I just hope whoever is my partner isn't too difficult._

I decide to switch my blade to pistol mode just because it's easier to carry, and I slip it in its holster. I continue running full speed until I trip on a log, and I faceplant.

"Freaking _ow!"_ I clutch my face and look around. I'm in a clearing surrounded all over by thick foliage. I immediately go to worst case scenario and imagine Ursi or Beowolves lurking in the shadows. Sure enough, four Beowolves file out of the bushes, surrounding me. "...You know what, I'm not even surprised." I quick-draw my pistol and fire at the one in front of me, hitting it in the shoulder. I switch to the gunblade, roll forward and stab it. As it slumps to the ground, the other three rush me at the same time. One lunges at me, which I sidestep and decapitate for its impatience. Another one follows suit and lunges at me. This time I slide under it, kick it behind me and let loose a sweet, sweet headshot. Oh, how I love those things.

What I don't like, however, is the blood. In fact, I'm absolutely terrified of it. So when I see the slowly growing pools of it from the three dead ones, I almost faint. I back up into the other Beowolf, who tries to bite my head off. I let myself fall to the ground and shoot it, then I roll to the side and shoot it again as it falls.

I get up and walk over to the body, and for some reason I contemplate tap dancing on it. But I'd rather not get any blood on my shoes; I'll probably faint. And I guess I might as well spare it and the headmaster (who is undoubtedly watching all of us) my atrocious dance moves and keep moving north.

Before long, I bump into Avery. Literally. I was running, and she was running, and we collided. There's a good three seconds of hangtime before I hit the ground hard and she stays true to her cat heritage and slides to a stop.

"Oh, Nilean! I've been looking all over for you!" She starts, then sees I'm on the ground groaning. "Uh, are you okay?"

"Yeah...I'm fine," I manage to say as I pick myself up. "Glad to see you're okay, I guess."

"Of course I'm okay! I'm untouchable!" She smiles and strikes a pose. "But I can make an exception for you..."

"Let's go," I say, ignoring her hint, and resuming my northbound advance.

We walk in silence for a good five minutes before Avery breaks it. "So...did anything eventful happen after you landed?"

"Four Beowolves made the mistake of trying to ambush me. What about you?"

"Well...the same I guess. Except they were Ursi rather than Beowolves. And there were three of them."

_Well now I feel like what I did was child's play. _"And you took them on alone?"

"I killed one of them and then the other two killed each other when I dodged their attacks."

"Oh." I notice a burning smell that's getting stronger by the second. "If I can smell that, you _definitely_ can."

"Maybe someone decided to stop and have a snack?" She guesses optimistically, but by the droop of her tail I can tell that she isn't liking this one bit.

"I highly doubt it. You don't need that big of a fire to cook anything except a group of people." I look at the rapidly growing forest fire and shudder. "Let's keep moving." I start walking, then I realize she isn't coming with. She's rooted in place and staring at the incoming inferno. "What's wrong?"

"I'm scared..." She mutters, still staring at the fire in fear.

"Well staying here is only going to make your fear increase. Come on; I'll make sure nothing happens to you," I say, noticing the urgent tone I unconsciously laced into my voice.

She swallows. "O-okay." I take her hand and lead her away as fast as I can.

"Did you really mean that?" She asks. "That you'll make sure nothing happens to me?"

"Well...I can't make any promises, but I'm damn sure I'm going to show my best effort to do so," I say, though that first part she probably could've done without. I mentally slap myself for that, but the pain I felt on my cheek I did not imagine. I turn to my right and see an Ursa lying on the ground, and a number of demolished trees lying in its wake. Where it came from was apparently a clearing with a blonde—Yang, is what I remember her name to be. Her hair seems to be...burning, and she's turned on another Ursa and yelling at it. The one she knocked through the trees starts getting up slowly, and Avery looks at me with a concerned expression.

"Hey, um, Nile?"

"Hmm?" I brandish my gunblade and prepare to tussle with this beast.

"You're bleeding..." She points to my cheek.

Maybe I wasn't exactly clear when I said I had hemaphobia. Blood terrifies me, but only if it's other than mine. If you make _me _bleed, I'm going to make sure I repay the deed tenfold.

Right now I can't quite blow up on Yang, since she was only defending herself, I think. So my next option is to blame the Ursa, who so _stupidly_ decided to fly through trees and send a splinter into my cheek.

Wiping the blood off of my cheek, I turn my sword into ring blade form and walk up to the Ursa. It looks down on me and roars, then tries to swipe at me. I hold the blade sideways and step back, and its enormous paw goes through the ring up to its elbow, which I reply to with firing a round into its chest and using the recoil to cut off the beast's arm. It roars again, this time in agony. I shove the blade at its legs, fire the two other guns at the same time sending it forward again, cutting it from the knee down, then I fire from the front, cutting it from the waist down, and finally I spin and cut diagonally down its torso. The upper half (rather comically) slides off of the body, and the rest falls over soon after.

The only thing that anger got me was an epic kill and a bloody face. Wonderful.

"Well...that was quite the performance you put on there, Nile," Avery comments, walking up to me.

"Not really..." I mutter. I turn my blade into a pistol and holster it. "Which way is north again?" She points in the direction of Yang and a black-haired newcomer. She has a black ribbon tied into a bow on top of her head. She has low-heeled boots and black stockings that fade to purple as they near her shoes. On the outside of her stockings are white flowers that bear resemblance to belladonna flowers. She's wrapped black ribbons around both of her arms, with a detached black sleeve and a silver band on her left arm. She has a black buttoned vest with coattails, and a white, sleeveless undershirt that exposes part of her midriff with white shorts that are probably connected to her shirt. (I can't tell because it's partly obscured by the vest.) The shorts have a zipper on the front of each leg, but they don't have any purpose that I can see. There's also a detached scarf-like collar around her neck.

_I wonder if we can go around them..._

Of course, that idea is tossed out of the window when Avery engages the duo. "Heeeyyyyyyyyy~!" She waves enthusiastically at the two of them, which only Yang returns. "It's nice to see a friendly face out here."

"Yeah. I can say the same." Yang says. The two of them carry on with their conversation, and the ninja-esque girl and I look on in bemusement. Before long, she clears her throat.

"Shouldn't we be getting a move on? We don't have all day," She advises.

"I second that. Come on, Avery." I reach to grab the back of her blouse, but instead I grasp her tail. She yelps, shudders, then falls to the ground, with an unfocused look on her face. I hold up my hands in innocence. "I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, you didn't do _anything_ to her," the black-haired girl says sarcastically. She goes to Avery's side and a look of recognition flashes on her face, which disappears just as fast as it came. She waves her hand in front of her face and then snaps, which does nothing to revive her. Though there isn't much that gesture can do, anyway.

"Come on, get up!" I plead. I start to pull her up, and unexpectedly she jumps on me. "Gah! What are you doing?"

"So you want to play around with weak spots, huh?" She whispers in my ear, and I notice a gleam in her eyes that spells 'danger' all over it. It's even worse because this is the first time I've been on the receiving end of this infamous gaze. She gets like this whenever someone touches her ears or tail, and regardless of intention (or lack of it), she'll go berserk.

"It was an accident..." I say, although I know it's futile. I close my eyes and await whatever's to come.

Then I feel her lick my bloodied cheek.

_What the hell?_

"I'll get you back sooner or later." She pushes off of me into a handstand, rights herself, and continues walking north.

* * *

[3rd Person POV]

Ozpin takes a sip of the coffee in his mug as he monitors the students. As of yet, two people have yet to partner up; Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. The former is sitting in a tree watching the latter take on a King Taijitu. He's been disarmed by the white half, knocked to the ground, and it appears he's about to be eaten by the black half, until he activates his aura, blocks the strike, and breaks off the fangs. He drops one and shoves the other one into its eye, then uses his aura to push it through its head, making it explode.

"I applaud this one. He's calm and composed, even in a situation where he's lost his weapons. He has excellent use of his Aura as well; not many his age have much control over their Auras that he has," He comments to Glynda. He looks back at the screen and sees the boy running at the white half. The Taijitu lunges at him, which he slides under, picks up the other fang, and drives it into the top of its head.

With all that done, he takes a seat on the corpse and catches his breath. Finally, Nora makes some weird noise and hangs upside-down from the tree.

"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like." Ren comments, to which Nora responds to with tapping his nose and saying, "Boop."

"Poor boy," Glynda says, taking a look at the two of them. "I can't possibly imagine those two getting along..." She switches to a view of two others, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos. Another unfavorable pair, in her opinion. _An awkward, inexperienced looking boy with a fantastic young girl like her. Its a shame things had to be the way they are. All in the name of fairness, though._ "Still, he's probably better off than miss Nikos. I don't care what his transcripts say; that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat." She sighs. _Things aren't looking particularly well for this year's students._ "I suppose we'll find out soon enough..." She says, responding to her thoughts out loud.

"At their current pace they should reach the temple in just a few minutes. Speaking of which...what did you use as relics this year?" She asks, and Ozpin doesn't respond. "Professor Ozpin?"

He 'hmm's his response. He changes his screen to another group; Nilean Lilac and Avery Aquamos. As of now he's viewing the boy eviscerating an unlucky Ursa who was punched nearly into him by Yang Xiao Long. Both of the students seemed to have entered a frenzied state. Yang went berserk when the aforementioned Ursa had pulled out a strand of her hair. Her body radiated flames for a moment and her eyes turned red.

_Talk about a hair-trigger temper..._

The boy went berserk when Avery pointed out he was bleeding. Upon further scrutiny it appears his eyes are red around the edges of the iris and it appears to crawl slowly to his pupil.

The two groups start to mingle, mainly Avery and Yang, until Yang's partner Blake Belladonna and Nilean step in and remind them of their objective. Then Nilean accidentally grabs Avery's tail, and she collapses.

He smiles, his hope in this year's students increasing tremendously. "You know what, Glynda?"

She turns to him when she hears her name.

"I have a feeling this year will be the most eventful one I've ever had as headmaster."

* * *

[Nilean's POV]

"Think this is it?" I hear Yang ask the black-haired girl—Blake, as she told us on the walk here. It's a rather stupid question, which Blake appears to agree with as she just gives Yang a look and continues down the slope without a word. Soon after, Yang and Avery follow suit. And after a few moments after that, I follow their following suit.

"Chess...pieces?" Blake wonders.

"Some of them are missing," Yang points out. "Looks like we weren't the first ones here."

"Well...I guess we should pick one," she responds. Without any better thing to do, Avery and I do the same. The four of us inspect all of the pieces, and it seems Yang and Blake come to an agreement.

"How about a cute little pony?" Yang suggests, holding up a white knight piece.

"Sure," Blake says amusedly, and walks over to her.

The white bishop piece catches my eye. I pick it up and inspect it, then hold it up for Avery to see. After a few moments of holding it there like an idiot, I look back and see her focusing intently on the portion of the forest to the west. Her ears are twitching and her intense expression changes to worry soon afterwards.

A second later we hear a girl's distant scream.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang says. "Blake, did you hear that? What should we do?" Yang apparently hasn't realized that she's talking to a brick wall, as Blake is just staring up into the sky. She points up at whatever it is, and we all look up to see the black-and-red haired girl rocketing towards us.

"Heads uuuupppppp—" She begins to yell, then Vomit Boy crashes into her midair, cutting her off and sending the both of them careening into the part of the forest left of us.

_Where the hell did they come from?_

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asks Yang. I begin to notice her tendencies to point out the obvious.

Then it dawns on me.

"That's your sister?" I ask incredulously.

"Yeah..." Yang answers, still staring off into the trees.

"You two don't look even _remotely_ alike!"

"Yeah, I know..." She's still staring off into the trees, and I guess it's nigh time for me to do the same. I follow their gazes and see part of the girl's red cloak through all of the branches, and I see the back of the blond hanging from one of the branches above her. A moment later, we hear a roar and see some trees get overturned as an Ursa rampages through the forest in front of us, finally coming to a stop as it crashes to the ground. Following the crash, a girl with short reddish-brown hair and turquoise eyes—Nora Valkyrie—falls off the Ursa's back and rolls to a stop, and soon after Ren appears, looking exhausted.

"Oh, jeez. Not her, too..." I complain. We see a flash of pink and white fly past us, and all of a sudden Nora is standing in front of us with the white rook/castle piece.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora chants in a sing-songy voice, and starts dancing.

_She's still hyperactive as ever..._

"That's Nora for ya," Avery mutters to herself, and I hear her start fiddling with her chain.

"NORA!" Ren yells, finally having been pushed to the edge by his friend's ADHD behavior. She stops abruptly, and the castle piece (which is now on her head) falls into her hand.

"Coming, Ren!" She salutes him, but makes no move to go to him.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake wonders, which we all respond to by staring at Nora bemusedly.

We hear a screech coming from the right, and trees start toppling like totems as we see a red-headed girl run out of the forest with a battle-worn Death Stalker on her tail.

"Oh my god," Avery and I say simultaneously, and I begin wondering what I did to deserve this.

Yang's sister hops out from the trees and jogs towards us, to which Yang responds to with, "Ruby?", as if she'd forgotten she'd fallen out of the sky mere moments ago.

"Yang!" She yells excitedly, and she holds out her arms to embrace her, until a wild Nora interrupts their reunion by jumping in between them and yelling her _own name_. Cue more bemused looks casted at Nora.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake asks, as we all knew she would.

"It suppose so..." I respond, my brain having melted in my skull from all that has happened in the past minute.

And to top it all off, the short yellow-orange haired girl I met yesterday (Emiko, if I recall correctly) and a dude wearing a black-and-white bandana, a white sleeveless shirt cut diagonally from the left hip to right rib and sleeved shirt under it with a black-and-white checkerboard design, baggy black pants with a white cloth belt, black combat boots and gloves reaching up to his elbow are running from a pack of Beowolves and one Ursa (some of which are on fire, including the Ursa). They hop off of the ridge and run towards us.

"Whoa!" Nora exclaims cheerily.

"I told Weiss we should have taken them on..." Ruby says, and then I remember the forest fire from earlier. Putting Ruby's statement, the flaming Grimm and the forest fire together, I deduce that the Ice Queen and Ruby must be in someway connected to that. Not that it's important to anything at the moment.

Tearing myself from my analysis, I look at the newcomers. "Hey, Emiko."

"Hi, Nilean," She responds, then looks behind me towards the abandoned temple. "Are those the relics?"

"Yep."

"Okay, thanks." She walks over and picks up the other white bishop piece.

"Did those two just—" Blake begins, but clear my throat to interrupt her.

"Please don't, Blake," I say.

I notice Avery backing up slowly, along with Blake and Ruby. I wonder why until I see Yang tense up, then promptly explode. The area around her erupts into flames for a moment, and I had the misfortune of being in the blast radius. I receive a few burns, and I yelp and hop away from her.

"I can't take it anymore!" She yells waves her hands around, causing flames to trail the movement of them. Her face is flushed in anger and her eyes have changed from their usual lilac purple to bright red. "Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?"

"Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in that request," The black-and-white themed dude asks. "She flips out and tells us to calm down?"

"Good observation," Avery comments, then backs up even farther.

I look to see Yang has lifted the boy off of his feet by his shirt, then she thinks better of whatever she was going to do and puts him back down.

_I wonder what made her stop..._

"Hiya, Ren!" Avery says to Ren as he reaches us. He gives a feeble wave then tries to catch his breath.

"Um, Yang..." Ruby starts to say with a worried tone, and I start to wonder how this can get any worse. She points up, and we all look to see Weiss hanging from one of the talons of an enormous Nevermore.

"How could you leave me?" Weiss calls down.

"I said jump!" Ruby calls back up like it's that easy.

"She's gonna fall," Blake points out.

"She'll be fine," Ruby says, trying to reassure us.

"She's falling," Ren says in a deadpan, and sure enough, the Nevermore wiggles it's leg a bit and Weiss loses her grip.

"Should we help her?" I ask everyone, and I get a lot of disbelieving stares. Apparently I'm alone in my anti-Schnee feelings. Either that or everyone else's morals are much more intact than mine are.

"Of course we should!" Ruby yells at me.

"I second that," Emiko says.

"Now let's add a third." Avery raises her hand.

"Aye, four," The black-and-white boy adds.

"Aaannndd five!" Nora raises her hand as well.

"Then meeting adjourned by majority rule," Ruby says.

"How are we going to save her?" Blake asks.

"That...is a really good question," Yang answers.

"That we don't have the time to answer," Emiko responds.

Though _we _didn't have time to answer that question, the scraggly blond did. He leaps out of the tree and catches her in midair.

"Jaune, you are a serious piece of work," Ruby says in awe.

"A seriously _stupid _piece of work," Black-and-white mutters.

"They're _still _going to fall," Ren says, and is disproven as Jaune and Weiss give gravity the finger and hang in midair for a moment.

Gravity did _not _like that gesture. It sends the two of them to the ground _hard_, with Jaune landing flat on his stomach, and Weiss landing on his back. "My hero," Weiss says sarcastically and rolls her eyes.

"My back..." Jaune mutters.

_Little does he know, Jaune is our group's involuntary comic relief._

The two of them assemble with the rest of us, and the green eyed, red-headed girl gets knocked over towards us by the Death Stalker.

"Great, the gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang unfittingly quips with faux-cheerfulness.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby says, then draws her scythe and charges unbelievably fast at the Death Stalker.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang yells at her, but she's about a second too late (given that was the amount of time it took Ruby to get to the Death Stalker). Ruby gets knocked back by the Death Stalker's huge pincer. She rolls into a crouch, looks back at us and waves, probably trying to assure us that she's fine, then she shoots at the Death Stalker from the end of her scythe and begins to run.

"I'd prefer none of us die, actually, Yang," I say and shoot one of the Beowolves that attempted to get the drop on us. "So we should probably help her."

"Yeah, roger that." She sprints towards Ruby, but then slides to a stop as the Nevermore releases a volley of feather-spikes. One snags Ruby's cloak and yanks her back, and the rest fall harmlessly around them, though two of them come a bit close to hitting Yang.

The Death Stalker advances on her and brings down its stinger, but the pale blue blur that is Weiss rushes forward, sending up a wave of ice which close around the stinger and freeze it into place.

"Never thought I'd see the day that Weiss would play the hero..." I mutter to myself, and shoot another one of the advancing Beowolves.

"We're definitely pressed for time, here. What are those two doing?" Emiko complains, pointing to Weiss who is apparently giving a speech to Ruby.

"I don't know, but they need to hurry up with it!" Avery yells, and charges at the rapidly approaching pack of Beowolves.

_Well I can't have her do that alone..._ I think, and follow her into the fray.

She wraps her chain around one of the Beowolves and swings it into another one, then she slides across the ground, flips a switch on her glove and the chain gains what looks like an electrical property, courtesy of Dust, and swings it along the ground, electrocuting all that it touches. I follow that up with testing my trigger-finger on some of the remaining ones, and then switching to gunblade mode and cutting a swathe through them into their center. The hole I created quickly closed on itself, and I'm encircled by a hostile wreath of black-and-white. Around twelve of them charge me at once; a big mistake on their part. I catch one by the neck and force its head down, then leap off of its back and onto a tree branch, and I let loose another volley of bullets, complimented by the electrical chain rampage Avery is on.

I drop down from the tree back into the crowd, switch to my ringblade, and begin using it as a hula-hoop. Not exactly the best idea, as it _will_ make me bleed, but whatever. It makes using my Semblance easier, because I won't have to go through preparing.

I clench my teeth as the ring cuts into the skin around my waist, and I start to feel the blood running down my legs.

_Here goes nothing..._

I stop hula-hooping and move out of the ring, then grab it with both hands, and close my eyes, imagining a cyclone forming and rotating with my movement. By the howls and shrieks of the Grimm and the slowly dissipating amount of air, I can tell that that is exactly what happened. Opening my eyes, a cyclone comprised of my own blood is spinning around me, carrying any unlucky Beowolf with it and flinging it away.

Then, the flaming Ursa (how the hell is that thing still alive?) charges at me, and my concentration breaks. The cyclone dissipates and I trip on an enormous tree root, and fall to ground (still spinning) and hit my head. I yelp as my body continues with the momentum and almost snaps my neck, and I attempt to get up, but major-league vertigo and a splitting headache making the job hellish.

The Ursa does not let up on its charge, and struggle more and more to get up before it reaches me, but silently hoping Avery will get here in time to dispatch of the hairy meat sack. Painfully turning to look at her, I see she's occupied with her own problems, so I have to improvise. I lost my weapon in the fall, so I try to use my Semblance and make something, anything that can help me, but the more I try to concentrate the more my head hurts.

The only thing that I can use as a weapon is one of the spikes that broke off of one of the Beowolves. I pick up the spike, flip it around in my hand, so that the point is facing the bear, and right as it roars I throw the spike into its mouth point-first. Its roar is cut short and is replaced by a gurgling sound as it claws at its neck, attempting to get it out.

I back up as quickly as I can as I realize it's dying. I don't want to be crushed under the 800 pounds of weight that this monster has stored up. It falls forward, and its apparent its going to fall on my legs. I reach behind me and try to get up, but (of course) I slip and fall. A second before the soulless mass crushes me, good ol' Checkerboard grabs me and moves me as Emiko knocks it away with her bladed-twin-vajra-turned-yo-yo.

"Th-thanks." I manage to say to him.

"No problem." He picks me up like a ragdoll and I manage to stand up straight. "We need to go, now. You used non-lethal force to blow those sons-of-bitches away, which means they're coming back and they're bringing their friends. Do you have your relic?"

"Um...yeah." I reach into my pocket and pull out the white bishop piece I picked up.

"Okay, good. The others are coming this way now, and we're joining them."

"Where are we going?" I ask him as I move sluggishly to go get my ring blade, which is lying on the ground next to the tree I jumped from earlier.

"Back up the cliff. We came down here to get these relics and come back; there's no sense in fighting these things."

"Okay..." I mutter reluctantly as the other eight come this way.

"Alright, let's move!" He commands, almost leader-like, I suppose, and everyone senses it on him as he waves his hand to get everyone going.

"Roger that, Commander Checkerboard," I say to myself, but he happens to have overheard.

"Commander Checkerboard, huh? That has a nice ring to it...but you can just call me Lucas," He says, retracting the claws in his gloves and pressing a button on the gloves.

"Alright, Commander Lucas. What are you doing?" I ask him as the holes where the claws protract and retract from start to glow red.

"I'm about to slow them down. Can you knock down the trees for me?"

"Um...probably." I close my eyes and imagine hands picking up the trees and dropping them in the Beowolves path. After a few seconds of focusing the headache intensifies and my fatigue rapidly increases, but the job gets done. "What now?"

"We're about to set this place ablaze." He grins as he starts firing blasts of fire at the blockade, and after a few shots, it's a roaring inferno.

"Okay, optional objective completed. There are no more sidetracks, right?" I wonder as I struggle to stand. _I don't think I can do much more..._

"Yep. Or nope. I'm never sure how to answer those questions. But all we have left to do is get up that cliff," He says, then starts to jog after the others, and I follow suit.

After a few moments, I hear a screech and a crash as the Death Stalker breaks through our blockade.

"Holy mother of..." I begin, and my voice trails off as I see the rapidly advancing mega-scorpion. We high-tail it and catch up to Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren. As we reach the base of a stone bridge, the Nevermore swoops down and crashes through the bridge, separating us from the others.

"Crap..." I hear Lucas mutter as he slides to a stop and turns around. The scorpion swings at us with its enormous pincer, which we all either jump over or roll under. While in the air, Ren and I fire at the scorpion, trying to find a weak point in its armor, but no dice. When I land, Blake uses me as a springboard and slices at the monster repeatedly with her sword-turned-kusarigama while in the air, then Pyrrha shoots at one of its eyes.

_I think my teamwork skill went up a level..._

"NORA SMASH!"

As we hear the battle cry we see Nora bring her hammer down on the scorpion's head, then lets loose a blast from the head, smashing the head into the ground and sending herself rocketing back. She bumps into Blake and sends her over the edge of the chasm, and Jaune lands where Blake was before she fell.

But I have no time to look and see if she makes it, as we hear an almost harmonious chorus of howls, and the pack of Grimm that we attempted to slow down make s yet another appearance.

"Uh...We're just a bit outnumbered..." I point out.

"And a lot outmatched," Ren adds.

We all focus on dodging the attacks as we try to think up a plan.

"Hey...You! And you!" Jaune points at Lucas and I. "Can you guys occupy the Beowolves?" He asks hurriedly, and leaps out of the way of another sweep.

"Yeah! We'll take care of it!" Lucas answers for the two of us, and drags me along with him. He leaps onto one of the Death Stalker's arms, then tosses me (again, like a ragdoll. Am I really that light?) up onto the other arm. I barely manage to stick the landing, and I wince as my belt digs into the cuts on my hips. We run up its body and as we reach the back of it, Lucas extends his claws and motions to the tail. I nod my acknowledgment and switch to my gunblade, and we both simultaneously slash at the tail. The limb falls off and the scorpion screeches, and we leap off of it and into the growling mass of Grimm.

As soon as I land, the Beowolves swarm. I shoot one, slash another two or three of them, then vault over one and land on another one.

"Bring it on, freaks!" I say to myself, and switch to the ringblade and cut one down the middle, spin, and swing radially, boosting the speed with the recoil from the shots I'm firing willy-nilly all around me. As I slow my rotation I make a game with myself to see how many monsters I can decapitate before I cease movement.

Decapitation is another method I am extremely fond of. Until the hemoglobin starts spewing from those severed veins and arteries. But I ignore it for sake of my life and not letting the others down.

I set a new record of seventeen severed noggins, and mentally pat myself on the back. I hear one come at me from behind, so I brace the ring against the ground, and, like a gymnast on the bars, I swing through the hoop and back around, kicking the monster in the back, then I dislodge my ringblade and fire a round, using the recoil to cut it in half.

"Hey, guys!" I hear Jaune yell. "The stinger! We need the stinger!"

"Lucas," I start, beginning to call on him to cover me, but I notice he has problems of his own. I'm dreading what I'm having to do next, but I have no choice. I change the ringblade to a pistol and fire it in all of its 9 mm semi-automatic glory. When I run out of ammo, I take one of my daggers and cut across my left palm. Putting the dagger back and wincing at the pain, I make an uncountable number of spikes protrude out from the ground around me at an angle, impaling those in the area and preventing any others from advancing on me.

But the toll it put on me was a bit expensive.

I fall to my knees and it becomes harder to breathe, or even keep my eyes open. But nevermind my condition, there's one more thing I need to do. Mustering the last of my energy, I hold out my hand and use more blood to pick up the tail and hold it over the Death Stalker's head. I see Ren start firing at the base of the stinger, trying to weaken it, but he's stopped abruptly as he's knocked into a wall and doesn't get up. Pyrrha throws her shield at it, cutting it off and it falls on the head. I release the rest of the tail and I hear an explosion as Nora rockets skyward, smiling all of the way, and then she rotates her hammer and lets loose another explosion and she's propelled downward, and drives her hammer into the stinger, sending it through the monsters head.

The last thing I see is the blood from the spikes falling to the ground.

* * *

[3rd Person POV]

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin calls the four of them to the stage, and the audience becomes hushed again as they all file onto the stage. "The four of you chose the white knight pieces. From here on out, you are to be team RWBY, led by..." He pauses for effect, and smirks slightly. He always loves to see the eager faces of the crowd and team members as they wait nigh-impatiently for the announcement. And he simply _relishes _the look on their faces when it's someone they don't expect. "Ruby Rose."

Cue applause, amazement, and a nonplussed Weiss Schnee, no doubt wondering why she wasn't appointed leader. He lets the four of them celebrate for a moment before sending them back to their seats.

"Next; Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren. The four of you collected the white rook pieces. From here on out, the four of you are to be team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc." Cue more applause and amazement. The amazement coming from everyone in the room, most notably Jaune himself. Not _one_ person expected this one, not even Glynda. She was as flabbergasted by that declaration when Ozpin announced it to her as everyone else.

"And finally; Lucas Shakhmatnayadoska, Avery Aquamos, Nilean Lilac, Emiko Yūyake." They all file onto the stage and face him. Well, except Nilean. He's in the infirmary as a result of overexertion, blood loss, and a mild concussion. He's not supposed to be back on his feet for at least a week and a half, and Ozpin has no allusions that he will remain cooperative for the whole duration.

Ozpin makes a mental note to go and visit him after this. There are some things he wishes to speak to him about. And there's something nagging at the back of his mind, one he feels whenever he hears Nilean's last name. He might need to look into that as well.

"You four selected the white bishop pieces. From here on out, you are to be called team LANE, led by Lucas Shakhmatnayadoska." This time, just applause. Anyone who saw him perform yesterday would testify that he is definitely leader material.

The two girls congratulate him while he thanks them and rubs his head nervously, obviously feeling a bit humbled by his newfound position. Ozpin sends the three of them back to their seats and begins to speak again.

"That concludes today's assignment of teams. I've already stated that these teammates will be with you for the next four years, but know that you will be living with your teammates as well. I have the dorm room numbers posted on the Dormitory Corridor's doors. I wish you all luck; you are dismissed."

There's an amount of chattering as they all exit the main hall; an amount that is far too much for his taste. Ozpin exits from the other side of the main hall and makes a beeline for the infirmary.

* * *

[Nilean's POV]

A knock on the door wakes me up from a dreamless sleep.

"May I come in?" A muffled voice asks.

I grunt in response, and professor Ozpin opens the door. "Hey, professor Ozpin. You finally coming to tell me my grade for the initiation?"

"That wasn't really my intention, but since you want to know; you passed. With flying colors, actually. You had the third-highest score, behind Lie Ren and Blake Belladonna."

I raise my eyebrows. "Really?" _I hardly think I earned that grade. _"And just what did I do to earn this grade?"

"You put forth your best effort, used an extremely effective landing strategy, which is a big part, believe it or not, and pushed your limits to make sure your teammates could get back alive. Not to mention you almost killed yourself conjuring those spikes and holding up the Death Stalker's severed tail."

"I didn't know it was that bad..." I say, more to myself than to him.

"Moving away from the 'initiation' topic; there are a few things I have to ask you regarding your presence here." He sits in the chair beside my bed and crosses his legs. "Tell me, have your cuts healed?"

I think of giving him a stare loaded with 'are-you-kidding-me', but I think better of it because he can send me out of Beacon with a wave of his hands. "Of course. They've healed with no sign that they were ever there. Like they're supposed to."

"Courtesy of your Aura."

"Yep. I would have bled out a hundred times over without it."

"Speaking of your Aura: why doesn't it heal your minor wounds immediately, like everyone else's?" He asks, and I start to feel like a specimen in a laboratory.

"Because it's an a—" I stop myself from calling it what I always call it. "Because it's...I don't even know. It has a mind of its own. It's almost like a negligent parasite, except that if I die, it dies, too. So it only steps in to aid me when I'm about to take a potentially fatal blow, or when the battle is over."

"...Interesting. You're the only one I've ever encountered with an Aura that behaves as such."

"Great. Nice to know my mom wasn't the only one who thought I was special," I mutter.

"Trust me, you are." He pushes the glasses up on his nose then pulls a tablet out of his coat and presses a few buttons. "It says here on your medical records that you are hemophilic...yet you are at a school for warriors. Does that not seem a bit...weird to you?"

"Nope. Not one bit," I say and mess with a stray lock of hair on my head. "But only because I have, or rather, had a way to combat it."

"What was it?"

"My medication. It was extra powerful, and could replace the clotting agent in my blood in 90 seconds I put it in a little pouch in my shirt and I'd take it before or just after I started bleeding. But, I ran out of it last week, and haven't been to refill it yet."

He responds by pulling a pill bottle on the cart beside your bed. "Come to the nurse whenever you need more."

I stare slack-jawed at him, then to the bottle and back, amazed that he is _this_ prepared.

"Alright, two more things and then I'll leave you alone. I'm enjoying this interrogation just as much as you are."

"Okay, shoot."

"Your Semblance. It seems to have a sacrificial nature, and works perfectly with your disorder, and you seem to rely heavily on it. Why do you do so when use of it will kill you quicker than your opposition can?"

"Because the reward outweighs the risks, in my opinion. I get to deal with said opposition quickly, and flashily, too."

He stares at me. A stare that I met with my own, and after a few moments, we both decided we've had enough soul-gazing and he continues, "And finally, your ringblade. You are rather proficient at using it, and you are the only person I've ever seen use that weapon. Did someone give you an idea, or did you come up with it yourself?"

"I got it from whoever made the _Soul Calibur_ games. There's a character named Tira that uses a ringblade as well, and I decided I'd use that and put some guns on it because why the hell not?"

"Wow. You are a very...extraordinary kid. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," Ozpin advises me and stands up.

"Aye aye, captain." I salute him and pick up the pill bottle he set on the cart.

"Oh, and you are excused from this week's classes so you can recover properly," He says and starts walking to the door.

"Thanks, Professor." I begin to open the bottle, but stop partway through when something comes to mind. "Oi, professor Ozpin?"

He stops and turns to look at me. "Hmm?"

"I heard you assigned teams today. Who's team am I on?" I ask.

"Your teammates are Lucas Shakhmatnayadoska, Avery Aquamos, and Emiko Yūyake. You're team is called team LANE, led by Lucas. I think you'll agree his is leader material."

"Yeah. None of the others are fit to lead, I can tell you that right now."

"Including you?"

"Yep. I don't communicate much on the field."

He cringes. "Well that's something you'll need to work on if you want time with your team to go smoothly."

"You got that right," I say, and we both silently agree that that finalized our conversation.

"Happy healing." He begins to walk out again, and this time I have nothing to say to stop him, which is a good thing. I'm feeling a little drowsy. And sore, so I'm thinking that I'll be able to sleep it off, but before that, I decide to continue opening the pill bottle and check out the medicine inside. I'm doing this just to see if it's the same pill my dad used to make in his laboratory for me. I pull one of the pills out and, surprisingly, it is. The way I can tell is because the Lilac family crest—a pointed crucifix—is on the pills.

But just how did he get these?

* * *

**A/N: And done. For those wondering if I followed Monty Oum's guidelines for naming characters, I did. (For those who don't know what those guidelines are, it was that either the name of a character had to 1) be a color 2) mean a color 3)make you think of a color 4) sound like a color.) I followed them spectacularly, except maybe the team name LANE. I bullshitted that one, because I couldn't think of anything that started with 'L' and included the other three letters, and a way to abbreviate it in a way that still sounded like the word, so, out came team LANE, and it reminds me of the color black because I think of a paved road when I hear 'lane'.**

**As for the team members, Lucas's last name Shakhmatnayadoska (Shakhmatnaya Doska/шахматная доска) is/are the word(s) for the Russian translation of 'checkerboard', which is more of a color theme (black and white) than a color itself, but it still follows the guidelines. Avery's last name Aquamos reminds me of the sea or water in general, which is blue. Nilean's last name Lilac is self explanatory. Lilac is a pale violet color, and Emiko's last name Yūyake means sunset in Japanese (I think I said when I described her last chapter that she had yellow-orange hair).**

**R&R and such, etc. See ya!**


End file.
